Stay of execution saves Misjif

HOLDEN — A pit bull that bit a neighbor will not be euthanized – as the Holden Select Board ordered in June – after Leominster District Court Clerk Magistrate Michael Croteau overturned that decision last week.

“We certainly took her out for a congratulatory walk, with her muzzle,” owner Maryhelena Windsor-Cripps said.

The family has also purchased a fence, but they would like advice from animal control before they erect it.

Cripps said she wasn’t sure if any other restrictions were to be placed on the threeyear old dog, but the family is happy to be able to take her out after nearly four months of being confined to the family’s property on Shrewsbury Street while the matter was before the court.

The Cripps family appealed the select board decision and received the letter last week stating the matter was overturned because the select board had made the decision “without proper cause.”

No other reasons were given for the decision.

Woodridge Road resident

John Mellecker, the victim of the attack last spring by Misjif, said he preferred not to comment until he knew more about what else might happen with the dog.

Mellecker’s injuries to his face and arm were serious; doctors told him that if not for his glasses, he might have lost an eye in the attack, which happened while owner Mark Cripps was walking the dog and stopped to chat with Mellecker. After being told the dog was friendly, Mellecker approached the dog with his hand out and Misjif jumped at Mellecker, biting him on the arm and face.

It wasn’t the first incident to concern neighbors. Several spoke at the select board hearing and at the court hearings about the dog’s dangerousness and other incidents of concern, like one where the dog attacked the Cripps family’s goat. The goat was subsequently euthanized, but the family and the veterinarian stated that the euthanization was because of the goat’s age, not the attack by Misjif.

Mellecker appeared at the select board’s regular meeting Monday to hear what their response to the decision by the court might be, but the select board met in executive session to discuss “pending litigation,” and did not discuss it publicly.

Town Manager Nancy Galkowski said public discussion did have the potential to jeopardize any future legal action.

Whatever else might happen legally, Holden Police Chief George Sherrill said he was still concerned.

“I’m in agreement with the neighbors,” Sherrill said. “I don’t want to see them have to live always looking behind their backs while they’re out walking or mowing the lawn, especially with the children in the neighborhood.”